'Feminism Is So Misused': Padmaavat Song Writers React to Swara Bhaskar's Open Letter to Bhansali

India, Jan. 29 -- Writer duo Sidharth-Garima, who co-wrote Ram-Leela with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and have written a song for Padmaavat, have reacted to Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar criticising the director for the way he has picturised the Jauhar sequence in the film. In a blog addressed to "all vaginas", the writer duo have slammed Swara for overlooking incidences in the film that are empowering. However, they have not named the Prem Ratan Dhan Payo actor.

Swara had written in her open letter, "Yes, women have vaginas, but they have more to them as well. So their whole life need not be focused on the vagina, and controlling it, protecting it, maintaining it's purity. (Maybe in the 13th century that was the case, but in the 21st century we do not need to subscribe to these limiting ideas. We certainly do not need to glorify them.)"

The blog by the writers starts by listing the dictionary definition of feminism and then goes on to list a few instances in recent films which were hailed as feminist. Moving on to Deepika Padukone-Ranveer Singh's Padmaavat, the blog then questions, "Did they feel like a 'vagina' when Rani Padmaavati almost orders her husband, who obliges, to throw out the lecherous priest? She takes a decision, as a vagina."

It then lists several such incidents in the film based on 13th century poet Malik Mohammad Jayasi's Padmavat. …

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